Is KMA 'on' any social media sites? Although I loathe social media, it might provide a means to an end, and in turn, promote activity on the board itself.

I guess the best answer is 'not really'? SoSZ has a page on Facebook, as does KMA. The former doesn't see much activity and the later is badly neglected by myself. Surely an active role on social media—sharing content, information, promotion—would inspire some interest and traffic, but I wonder if that same energy would produce better returns (at least on my part) adding new content to Kongming's Archives?

That's surely a part of this. There's little reason for people to continue going to Kongming's Archives and our other connected site, Simulated RTK, because neither is receiving regular updates with new content. Instead KMA serves as a reference on grounds of the information it already has to offer. Which brings us to the Three Kingdoms gaming community: even in the heyday of English Three Kingdoms communities traffic for games like Dynasty Warriors represented the lion's share of engagement not just in many of these websites, but in providing 'new blood' to communities. Although there was a thriving community (relatively speaking) for Three Kingdoms discussion prior to Koei's Western market insurgence—but these old communities are, to the best of my knowledge, gone. Scholars of Shen Zhou has enjoyed a large degree of Three Kingdoms history and novel discussion over the years, with some of that interest coming from even older communities or individuals already interested in the era, but many—including myself—became fascinated with the era because we were introduced through video games. In my odd-duck-out case, that would be Destiny of an Emperor.

I can't be certain, but I think one of the best things I could do for this community as an administrator would be to revive Kongming's Archives with regular content updates and updated news on related subjects and games—rather in the same capacity it served in the past. This is also something an interested individual or individuals could help with, but we'd need someone interested enough in the subject and activity to enjoy doing it.

As for traffic, certainly most of it comes from search engines. Kongming's Archives and Scholars of Shen Zhou both have a rather strong presence on the interent, so many of the people who are interested in these topics will, before long, stumble across these websites.

James wrote:I guess the best answer is 'not really'? SoSZ has a page on Facebook, as does KMA. The former doesn't see much activity and the later is badly neglected by myself. Surely an active role on social media—sharing content, information, promotion—would inspire some interest and traffic, but I wonder if that same energy would produce better returns (at least on my part) adding new content to Kongming's Archives?

That's surely a part of this. There's little reason for people to continue going to Kongming's Archives and our other connected site, Simulated RTK, because neither is receiving regular updates with new content. Instead KMA serves as a reference on grounds of the information it already has to offer. Which brings us to the Three Kingdoms gaming community: even in the heyday of English Three Kingdoms communities traffic for games like Dynasty Warriors represented the lion's share of engagement not just in many of these websites, but in providing 'new blood' to communities. Although there was a thriving community (relatively speaking) for Three Kingdoms discussion prior to Koei's Western market insurgence—but these old communities are, to the best of my knowledge, gone. Scholars of Shen Zhou has enjoyed a large degree of Three Kingdoms history and novel discussion over the years, with some of that interest coming from even older communities or individuals already interested in the era, but many—including myself—became fascinated with the era because we were introduced through video games. In my odd-duck-out case, that would be Destiny of an Emperor.

I can't be certain, but I think one of the best things I could do for this community as an administrator would be to revive Kongming's Archives with regular content updates and updated news on related subjects and games—rather in the same capacity it served in the past. This is also something an interested individual or individuals could help with, but we'd need someone interested enough in the subject and activity to enjoy doing it.

Absolutely, I do understand the 'wax and wane' fluctuation of any subject matter, particularly in this case; perhaps SOSZ has ran it's course, maybe it hasn't, we can only speculate based on a steady downward trend in activity and interest. This doesn't mean, however, that interest cannot be stimulated and thus, activity is increased. Anything is possible.

I do recognise your long-term ideology for a 'legacy', regarding KMA, and to be honest I'd gladly assist if/when I have the time to do so. Perhaps it'd stop me from having such pronounced bouts of absence, haha.

In my gaining years, I've come to appreciate scholarly pursuits more, whereas in my younger days they seemed burdensome. I'm afraid I'll have to do some moderate brushing-up and reading to be of any use to KMA in a general sense.

Is KMA 'on' any social media sites? Although I loathe social media, it might provide a means to an end, and in turn, promote activity on the board itself.

Part of the problem for board traffic was that XII didn't impress and XIII isn't out in English yet. XII's impending release saw lots of old hands here come out of the woodwork and geek out over stuff like the new portraits, but once they caught wind of the actual gameplay, that excitement died out fairly quickly. Also, I don't follow Dynasty Warriors, when was the last time a major release came out? The 7th one isn't really new any more, right? Koei isn't really putting out any games right now that would build attention up for the series again.

One suspicion I have is that older game models have run their course, my guess based on trends is that younger generations of gamers want something you can play on the go, low-key and simple. Preferably some sort of social element, and/or competitive element. I played Chaos of Three Kingdoms for a while, a game that was basically like Travian. The actual gameplay was hot garbage but - for a while - it was quite popular, and the social and competitive elements were very, very addicting - people were blowing tons of money on this dumb game. And yeah, sure, there are some who like the older models, who want a well-crafted strategy game or whatever, but when you talk about a company looking at securing a profit, that very social media you mention went on to change the whole paradigm. But again, it's just my interpretation as someone who was around as a kid for the first-gen(?) console run (aka Atari).

There are some fantastic niche projects that pop up in the Symposium. Really first-class work there, like the maps and new SGZ translations. But this is already a niche subject (in the West), Three Kingdoms, so it's a niche of a niche. If Koei's relevant up-and-coming projects aren't catching the attention of new gamers, then interest is bound to decline, slowly, but inevitably. People grow up, take on increasing responsibilities, have less time to play, fade away.

If someone at SoSZ created some sort of game platform designed in the spirit of Simulated RTK, but somewhat more geared toward social media, I think that would be the most effective way to leverage social media in the sites' favor. But that's a ton of work

James , I'd suggest bringing up back lost SGZ translations and host it in kongming.net's encyclopedia. Though the encyclopedia does contains external links but I doubt fresh/new Three Kingdoms fans have the knowledge to use the wayback machine to backtrack bio's of mediocre or lesser officers of the 3K era.

But think of the long run, maybe the Internet will mostly think SOZS and kongming.net has the most informative English translated Three Kingdoms stuff and one of the still standing active 3K discussion sites. China sites has all the information, yes but here we can still stand as a good community for English readers in the present and future time ahead.

"There are five possible operations for any army. If you can fight, fight; if you cannot fight, defend; if you cannot defend, flee; if you cannot flee, surrender; if you cannot surrender, die. " Sima Yi

Is KMA 'on' any social media sites? Although I loathe social media, it might provide a means to an end, and in turn, promote activity on the board itself.

Part of the problem for board traffic was that XII didn't impress and XIII isn't out in English yet. XII's impending release saw lots of old hands here come out of the woodwork and geek out over stuff like the new portraits, but once they caught wind of the actual gameplay, that excitement died out fairly quickly. Also, I don't follow Dynasty Warriors, when was the last time a major release came out? The 7th one isn't really new any more, right? Koei isn't really putting out any games right now that would build attention up for the series again.

One suspicion I have is that older game models have run their course, my guess based on trends is that younger generations of gamers want something you can play on the go, low-key and simple. Preferably some sort of social element, and/or competitive element. I played Chaos of Three Kingdoms for a while, a game that was basically like Travian. The actual gameplay was hot garbage but - for a while - it was quite popular, and the social and competitive elements were very, very addicting - people were blowing tons of money on this dumb game. And yeah, sure, there are some who like the older models, who want a well-crafted strategy game or whatever, but when you talk about a company looking at securing a profit, that very social media you mention went on to change the whole paradigm. But again, it's just my interpretation as someone who was around as a kid for the first-gen(?) console run (aka Atari).

There are some fantastic niche projects that pop up in the Symposium. Really first-class work there, like the maps and new SGZ translations. But this is already a niche subject (in the West), Three Kingdoms, so it's a niche of a niche. If Koei's relevant up-and-coming projects aren't catching the attention of new gamers, then interest is bound to decline, slowly, but inevitably. People grow up, take on increasing responsibilities, have less time to play, fade away.

If someone at SoSZ created some sort of game platform designed in the spirit of Simulated RTK, but somewhat more geared toward social media, I think that would be the most effective way to leverage social media in the sites' favor. But that's a ton of work

Indeed, I agree with most of that, Zyzyfer. Those who are not embroiled in the tangles of social media, with it's quick fixes and click-bait heaven, and those who visited and frequented SoSZ long ago are probably too immersed in real life to give it any real attention.

I don't know if this has even been considered but could we make it so a thread can be marked as unread? I use the 'unread posts' section to keep track of threads to read and reply. However sometimes I read the thread but don't have time to respond how I'd like for example I've browsed a few threads whilst being on holiday but may of those topics have since been buried. However if I could browse it but then mark it unread it would be waiting for me when I do get the chance to respond properly. If not, no worries, just thought it was worth asking.